Bottom Line:
One and 2 SI voices were added in Experiments 2 and 3, respectively.The results showed a semantic priming effect only in the conditions where the number of SC voices was greater than the number of SI voices, suggesting that semantic priming depended on prime intelligibility and strategic processes.Overall this finding suggests that informational masking can occur at a semantic level if intelligibility is sufficient.

ABSTRACTThe reported studies have aimed to investigate whether informational masking in a multi-talker background relies on semantic interference between the background and target using an adapted semantic priming paradigm. In 3 experiments, participants were required to perform a lexical decision task on a target item embedded in backgrounds composed of 1-4 voices. These voices were Semantically Consistent (SC) voices (i.e., pronouncing words sharing semantic features with the target) or Semantically Inconsistent (SI) voices (i.e., pronouncing words semantically unrelated to each other and to the target). In the first experiment, backgrounds consisted of 1 or 2 SC voices. One and 2 SI voices were added in Experiments 2 and 3, respectively. The results showed a semantic priming effect only in the conditions where the number of SC voices was greater than the number of SI voices, suggesting that semantic priming depended on prime intelligibility and strategic processes. However, even if backgrounds were composed of 3 or 4 voices, reducing intelligibility, participants were able to recognize words from these backgrounds, although no semantic priming effect on the targets was observed. Overall this finding suggests that informational masking can occur at a semantic level if intelligibility is sufficient. Based on the Effortfulness Hypothesis, we also suggest that when there is an increased difficulty in extracting target signals (caused by a relatively high number of voices in the background), more cognitive resources were allocated to formal processes (i.e., acoustic and phonological), leading to a decrease in available resources for deeper semantic processing of background words, therefore preventing semantic priming from occurring.

Figure 3: (A) Example of a background in the 1SC/2SI condition of Experiment 3, presented with a semantically related target word (left; related condition) or not (right; unrelated condition). S4, speaker 4 (see the legend of Figures 1, 2 for other abbreviations). (B) Example of a background in the 2SC/2SI condition of Experiment 3, presented with a semantically related target word (left; related condition) or not (right; unrelated condition).

Mentions:
The second SI voice (S4) was recorded by a French native female speaker (age = 23), using the same procedure as in previous experiments. S1, S2, and S3's auditory sequences were mixed with S4's. Targets used in Experiment 2 (recorded by TS2) were embedded in the backgrounds 2 s after their beginning start (see Figures 3, 4).

Figure 3: (A) Example of a background in the 1SC/2SI condition of Experiment 3, presented with a semantically related target word (left; related condition) or not (right; unrelated condition). S4, speaker 4 (see the legend of Figures 1, 2 for other abbreviations). (B) Example of a background in the 2SC/2SI condition of Experiment 3, presented with a semantically related target word (left; related condition) or not (right; unrelated condition).

Mentions:
The second SI voice (S4) was recorded by a French native female speaker (age = 23), using the same procedure as in previous experiments. S1, S2, and S3's auditory sequences were mixed with S4's. Targets used in Experiment 2 (recorded by TS2) were embedded in the backgrounds 2 s after their beginning start (see Figures 3, 4).

Bottom Line:
One and 2 SI voices were added in Experiments 2 and 3, respectively.The results showed a semantic priming effect only in the conditions where the number of SC voices was greater than the number of SI voices, suggesting that semantic priming depended on prime intelligibility and strategic processes.Overall this finding suggests that informational masking can occur at a semantic level if intelligibility is sufficient.

ABSTRACTThe reported studies have aimed to investigate whether informational masking in a multi-talker background relies on semantic interference between the background and target using an adapted semantic priming paradigm. In 3 experiments, participants were required to perform a lexical decision task on a target item embedded in backgrounds composed of 1-4 voices. These voices were Semantically Consistent (SC) voices (i.e., pronouncing words sharing semantic features with the target) or Semantically Inconsistent (SI) voices (i.e., pronouncing words semantically unrelated to each other and to the target). In the first experiment, backgrounds consisted of 1 or 2 SC voices. One and 2 SI voices were added in Experiments 2 and 3, respectively. The results showed a semantic priming effect only in the conditions where the number of SC voices was greater than the number of SI voices, suggesting that semantic priming depended on prime intelligibility and strategic processes. However, even if backgrounds were composed of 3 or 4 voices, reducing intelligibility, participants were able to recognize words from these backgrounds, although no semantic priming effect on the targets was observed. Overall this finding suggests that informational masking can occur at a semantic level if intelligibility is sufficient. Based on the Effortfulness Hypothesis, we also suggest that when there is an increased difficulty in extracting target signals (caused by a relatively high number of voices in the background), more cognitive resources were allocated to formal processes (i.e., acoustic and phonological), leading to a decrease in available resources for deeper semantic processing of background words, therefore preventing semantic priming from occurring.